How did you feel then? How do you feel now?

[DuFresne]

On 9/11, I was in 8th grade. I was home that day faking sick, lying in bed, trying to get some sleep, when mom rushed in to tell me to turn my TV on. A plane or something (or something?) had hit one of the Twin Towers, "but they think it might have been an accident" (like a plane's ever accidently hit a fucking modern world wonder, but hell, we were all naive at the time :/ ). I was watching for a while, I believe on MSNBC, listening closely to the reports and watching smoke billlow out of the co-tallest building in the world, when I witnessed a huge fireball burst from the other one. MSNBC hadn't had a good angle to see it, but I soon learned that another plane had crashed into the other tower, disintegrating any chance that this was a fucking accident.

Although I didn't like Bush then, which had more to do with the simple fact that he was a republican than anything substantial, I reacted like you'd expect a thirteen-year-old to: I wanted to see our military, our invincible, greatest-fighting-force-ever-assembled military, to go into Afghaniturkmeniranistan, and show that bearded asshole that fucking with America is a not-so-good idea.

We never got him. We cut and ran. We then launched that strike against Iraq, captured their leader, got stuck there, which brings us to today.

I don't know if our government did or did not have a valuable role in orchaestrating 9/11, but it's appearant to me that they have indeed used the attacks to gain their necessary support for their war in Iraq, and I am quite disillusioned. Yes, SSpad, history certainly favors the cynics and pessimists in this world, but in the words of Leonard Cohen (not trying to name-drop, just giving credit):

I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.

[Courage the Cowardly Dog]

I know most of us here have no feelings. But at the least it certainly made me think about our government's flaws and certainly made me think more abour Afgahnistan's war which i think it made me support it more considering.

Iraq however it didn't change my mind much, I think it was something that really ought to have been dealt with although i'm not sure we had or have the manpower to see it through I still oppose immediate withdrawel now that we've bitten off so much o chew we have to finish it as best we can. The link between Iraq and Al Qaeda is of course non existant, but thats not the point this isn't a war on Al Qaeda we fight it's a war on all terrorist groups or regimes who threaten us.

[ziggytrix]

Let's see - back then: complete and total state of shock. Everyone in the apartment complex gathered at a friend's apartment where we'd often gathered to watch movies, but that day we were watching the news. People kept coming and going, I guess some folks didn't want everyone to see them crying, but there wasn't a dry eye there... anyway 5 years later...

It was a lot easier to remember what the date was when logging time at work today.

I noticed a lot of flags in front of the businesses on our block.

Some asshole friend of mine called the posters on another message board I read "pathetic" for not having made a 9/11 anniversary thread before he got home from work.

Another day came and went. People are still dying all over the world, and somewhere a self-righteous jerk is yelling at people for not being mournful enough of the deaths he's thinking about at the moment.

Not much has changed from a local perspective, except for the contents people's bumper stickers and an empty place setting at soldiers' families' dinner tables.

I guess I'm lucky so far that everyone I personally know who's gone over there has made it back, though I did find out last year that some kid I don't remember from my graduating class was the first Arkansan casualty in Iraq.

[ArrowX]

I remeber it pretty vividly because it was the first action of real life destriciton I'd ever seen fold out in front of me live, I woke up expecting a regular day of school and turned on the TV for a little background noise and watched as I heard them talking about how a plane had crashed into the WTC, then as if on cue of them saying that I see the second plane form the left and watched it smash into the other tower.

The real weight hadn't really hit me untill I was sitting in school and EVERYONE was talking about it and a group of "hip, devil may care skater" kids were making jokes about how awesome it would have been to crash a plane into a building. The loudest one was then promptly fed a fist to his lip. I was suspended for 2 days.


Fucking 9/11

Its been 5 years, I don't care anymore. In all senses the Terrorists accomplished what they set out to do, the american populace puts up this shield of self confidence and "patriotism" but they all cower and hide under the very same government that allowed this monumental fuck up happen in the first place.

Just turn the middle east into fucking glass and stop whining.

[DuFresne]

Does anybody except feel that this thread really needs to be backed up?

[DuFresne]

I mean, look at all of us spilling our guts like this. This never happens!

[Preechr]

Originally Posted by mburbank

... And finally, I think (in fact I'm sure) Preech wasn't giving you shit. There may have been some level of sarcasm there, but it was his honest response.

Although I can't believe he didn't know what a solopsist was. Hey, Preech; They invented this thing called a dictionary? They even have them on line.

You're right. I really wasn't just bagging on him... just trying to be honest. I was also trying to set the stage for this not being an acceptable place to say whatever crappy crap somebody might like thinking that no one would respond honestly on the sacred ground of 9/11 nostalgia. I don't think Seth would have wanted that in his thread, based on my understanding that he wasn't just saying something controversial to start a fight.

As for looking up obscure words I will probably never use just because someone else sounded smart saying them, I'm content being not as smart as other people until everybody gets to be smarter than me. At that point, I will start trying to catch back up. I still don't know what that word means. I really though he'd just mispelled sophmoric. Sue me for skimming...

[kahl] "What does soplimastic mean? Are you insulting me?! YOU FILTHY DEPRAVED LICKER OF MONKEY GENITALS !!! Please tell me what it means..." [/kahl]

[Preechr]

Originally Posted by DuFresne

On 9/11, I was in 8th grade. I was home that day faking sick...

I was doing the same thing when the Columbia blew up.

I kind of avoided the "feelings" thing altogether, I guess. I was at work, and my dad called to tell us what he'd heard on the radio. I brought a TV out front, and the rest of the work day was spent glued to the tube. My initial shock stemmed from knowing absolutely nothing about why it was happening or what might come next. The anger I felt wasn't patriotism or bloodlust, though I let it out as such at first. I was angry at myself for my own ignorance and complete lack of context, though I expressed impotent anger toward "whoever was responsible."

I never bought a flag in fabric, sticker or pin form. While I recognize some people displayed such things before 9/11, I didn't want to count myself among those that flagged up as if in prayer for some generic American answer to some unknown tragic question. I tried my level best to take responsibility for whatever my part in it was. That was the day I set out to learn to be an adult. Prior to 9/11/1, I knew nothing about government or the world out side my immediate sight. I felt like the world had suddenly become so small I could grasp it, and that's what I'm still trying to do today.

I remember, more than anything else, an amazing feeling of wonder as I watched the events of that day unfold. I felt like a child to whom everything is new and unexplained. I've learned a lot since then, but today I still feel wonder more than anything else.

[Sethomas]

Yeah, you're right that I didn't want this to be about bickering over who's right or wrong. If your feelings aligned with your conscience, that's all I could ask for.

One thing that touched me was seeing people more aware of blood donations, having people flock to give blood by the millions when only probably few thousand units were needed. Coming from a medical family, I've heard stories of my dad working the ER with the hospital having no blood to give people, and even worse when my mom would nurse at the operating table and they would run out of units after having already cut open someone. I really hoped that maybe a net amount of lives could eventually be saved simply by that little trinket of awareness.